"In a niche at the back of the peristyle in the refined Pompeii domus that takes its name from this fresco, this portrait of the Athenian comedian Menander (end of the fourth century B.C.) was painted during the late Julio-Claudian era. The Greek...

The "border shows a row of stepped pyramids and a band of guilloche, and between these a wide acanthus scroll. The latter consists of foliate male masks similar to those placed in the corners and from which branches spring in either direction. In...